June 3. 1.985 Yet the single most emotional and moving moment of my visit to the Soviet Union took place not in the corridors of the Kremlin. nor at the cemeteries. nor among the treasures displayed at the Hermitage or the Winter Palace. It took instead in a small. cramped apartment in Moscow where. for 90 minutes. I listened to a middleaged womana teacher of English who 10 days earlier had undergone her third operation for what has been diagnosed as terminal cancerand her husbanda former member of the Soviet Helsinki Review Commissiondescribe the life of isolation and harrassment they have experienced as a result of their simple desire to emigrate from the Soviet Union. Dr. Naum Meiman and his wife. Inna have been trying for years. unsuccessfully. to leave the Soviet Union and join their daughter. Olga Plan. who is a constituent of mine in Colorado. The Meimans repeatedly have been denied emigration visas to seek medical treatment and to be reunited with their daugther. They have been told that Mrs. Meiman is too ill to travel. that satisfactory medical treatment for Mrs. Meiman is already available in the Soviet Union. that a Ministry of Health certificate. stating that treatment abroad is necessary. must be presented to Soviet emigration officialsonly to be told by the Ministry of Health that such cetificates do not exist. It was bitterly cold in Moscow in January. but the atmosphere in the Melmans apartment could not have been warmer. Despite almost weekly intrusion and harrassment by Soviet officials accusing the couple of "hooliganism" and "antiSoviet activities." the Meinmans showed an outward courage and determination and an inner peace that can only be described as a testament to the human spirit.
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emigrate emigration visas